


Mustard Flower

by Velamine_Menace



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, Lucretia & Kravitz & Angus are siblings, Lucretia-centric, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-03 00:27:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13329630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velamine_Menace/pseuds/Velamine_Menace
Summary: Lucretia, Angus, and Kravitz find a family in each other, as well as in the Southern California suburbs.





	1. Prelude in E

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for opening this up! I appreciate comments and kudos! Of course, constructive criticism (in my DMs) is always welcome <3

"Now dear, don't you look lovely." 

Soft brown, bespectacled eyes snapped back into focus, and blinked as Lucretia was drawn from her thoughts.

"..oh..Oh, thank you, Mother." She glanced at herself in the mirror quickly. "This skirt is quite nice with the shoes, and the... sweater is soft and quite warm."

Lucretia met her mother's gaze in the mirror as she felt her firm hand pat her shoulder. Her mother's reflection in the mirror smiled, and cleared her throat as she continued to hold her gaze into Lucretia's eyes.

"It's a great sacrifice, you know. Your father and I expect that you will make the most of this opportunity." 

Lucretia broke the gaze, looking down at her clean, beautiful leather shoes. So new, so shiny. She swallowed. 

"Yes, ma'am."

A ringtone sounded from her pocket. "Oh," Lucretia hurriedly opened her pocket to retrieve her phone, "It's my alarm. I set it so I might leave fifteen minutes early for school." 

Lucretia laughed quietly, and looked up at her mother for a moment before averting her eyes once more. "Yes...you know how first days are, Mother." 

Callused, elegant brown hands folded on her lap as she lifted her chin, pointing it towards the door. "You'd best make a good impression. Go on, now, lest you be late."

Lucretia opened her mouth as if to speak, but as fast as she had opened it, she shut it, and turned to leave the room. 

Choosing what radio to listen to can be quite frustrating. Four people choosing what radio to listen to, on a particularly nerve-wracking day, is even worse, Lucretia thinks to herself. Honestly, the reasons and logical explanations for even suggesting to listen to music on a day like this... It makes no sense. 

With her older brother sulking, her sweet baby brother fretting over his fancy tie, Lucretia's nerves are skyrocketing. As they drive through the suburbs, she attempts to sketch. Or write. Anything to take her mind off the anxious energy radiating off her family. 

After what seems like ages, Lucretia finally gives up and puts away her journal, assuming her role as the responsible middlest daughter, and proceeds to tell Angus that his cravat looks very becoming, looking him over once or twice as they approach his school.

As they pull up to Anise Creek Middle School, she leans over and straightens his glasses. "Look, what a fancy young man!" His eyes light up, and Lucretia kisses him on the nose. 

Kravitz leans out of the passenger seat and, despite his moodiness, grins and gives Angus a big wink and a hug. 

"Have a fantastic day, Angus."

Angus grins. "You too, Kravitz!" He reaches for the car handle, moves to step out, and then jumps back into the car to envelop Lucretia and Kravitz into a tight hug which, in Lucretia's opinion, should be clinically categorized as asphyxiation. 

"You two, have a splendid first day, alright?" His phone buzzes. "Oh gosh, I gotta go if I want to get the first choice for seating arrangements in class!" He grins, and dashes away into the crowd. 

Lucretia pulls the door shut. The car slowly pulls out of the parking lot. Judging by the traffic at the front of the school, they arrived just in time to avoid the sluggish tempo. 

Kravitz breaks the silence. "He'll be safe..." 

Lucretia startles alert. "Oh yes, he's a very strong boy for his age. And so smart and charismatic, too." 

The car is silent as they slowly pass street after street of white stuccoed houses on identical cul-de-sacs. Everywhere Lucretia looks, there are trees planted in neat little rows, and cleanly trimmed sections of grass sit alongside freshly swept sidewalks. There's a concrete slab that names a large, man-made waterform as "Stonystreet Lake". It's strange, Lucretia thinks to herself, that a lake would be in the so-called 'desert' of Southern California. She looks into the distance, at the sandy brown hills rolling across the horizon. It's not really a desert, she thinks to herself, just a nice, semi-arid suburb that happens to be three miles east of the beach. 

From her research, Lucretia learned that her school is at the base of one of these hills, so the fact that she arrived there so soon should not have surprised her as much as it did, considering how she stared out at them, watching them get bigger and bigger until they seemed to swallow the whole sky with their enormous girth.

Now that she's stopped daydreaming, Lucretia realizes how hectic the parking lot is. 

The car she's in is trying to drop off, much less pull into a spot, and despite the early hour, there is complete chaos outside her window. 

People are yelling in English, Cantonese, Tagalog, even Farsi, and while the linguist in Lucretia is fascinated, she is overstimulated. 

Cars honk, tires screech, and Lucretia's palms feel strangely sweaty. She bites her lip, and reminds herself to breathe. She counts, one, two, three... 

Someone taps her shoulder. "Lucretia? You alright?" She knows her brother's voice. It's soft and deep, and the familiarity of it calms her down. Without looking up, she nods. 

"Lucretia, need help carrying anything?" He's stepped out of the car, an arm outstretched towards her, the other one holding open her car door. 

Yes, she thinks to herself, he's here to help you. She takes a deep breath, steps out of the car, and smoothes her skirt. Lucretia shakes her head. "No thank you, but thanks for offering." Before reaching into the car to grab her belongings, she smiles at him as if to reassure him that his little sister is fine. 

Thus the two figures, a gangly girl clutching her bookbag to her chest like it's a lifebuoy, and a slightly taller boy glancing at his sister with a slight, worried frown, emerge and make their debut into the teeming seas of teens crowding the sidewalks bordering Mustard Valley High School, heads spinning with wild scenarios and plans, yet both completely ignorant of what awaits them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucretia makes a... friend? Acquaintance? She's not sure what word she should use for this person, but they seem to think she's worth hanging around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, thanks so much for the support! Kudos and comments are absolutely amazing! Sorry this took a few days to post, it felt messy and it took a while for me to reorganize my thoughts for this. 
> 
>  
> 
> Feel free to send me constructive criticism in my inbox! 
> 
> <3

Swimming upstream, squeezing past strangers in unfamiliar spaces, all rushing to and fro, proves to be a challenge for Lucretia. Unlike many of the other freshman, it is not her panicked first-day ignorance, nor her lack of foresight to study the school map carefully, that slows her steps.

After all, Lucretia has memorized these rooms, these many classes and the teachers belonging to them. Lucretia has memorized the educational backgrounds and careers of each of her teachers, has shuffled their faces on flashcards until each smile and button-up shirt and blouse was imprinted in her mind.

No, Lucretia has this all planned out. Her daily journal has a clean bullet-note list spelled out in immaculate inked handwriting, detailing everything she could possibly need to know for this day. She's calculated her average walking speed at different times of the day based on estimated traffic in different parts of the school, just by analyzing the blueprints of the school and estimating the distributed student populations in each class period.

It's not that Lucretia hasn't prepared for this moment. Rather, it's the smothering anxiety and tumultuous emotions bubbling up into her chest.

Lucretia is blessed to be taller than her classmates, but right now it feels like a curse. She can see above the crowd, and it's clear that she'll have to elbow and prod her way through. The prospect leaves her nauseous.

Lucretia gently taps someone in front of her on the shoulder. A short, stocky girl turns and faces Lucretia.

"Can I help you?" The girl speaks, her tone wavering between slightly startled and slightly curious.

Lucretia blushes in embarrassment. "Um, yes please? I'm headed to Ms. Garcia's."

The other girl's expression brightens. "Sure! Hey, I'm going there too. Come on, follow me." She gestures towards a small opening. "Don't be afraid to shove your way through. A girl's gotta do what she's gotta do."

If Lucretia's legs weren't so long, and the prescription of her glasses wasn't so strong, she would have lost sight of her guide. As the girl dances between bodies and slipped under gesticulating arms, Lucretia forces her herself to ignore her sweaty palms, and follows her companion.

The girl winks at her as Lucretia brushes past a group of boisterous boys, and all of a sudden, Lucretia's smiling, as she plays this new game, calling "excuse me" and "pardon me" to no one in particular, pushing her way through the crowd.

It takes only a minute or two to reach Ms. Garcia's classroom. Lucretia and the girl stand together.

"Thank you for helping me. I knew where the classroom was, I just..."

"Don't worry, I understand." The girl wrinkles her brows for a moment. In just another moment, she's grinning, hand outstretched.

"Name's Ivy Hurley. Hurley is just fine, though."

Lucretia shakes her hand, a small smile on her lips. "My name's Lucretia. I'm assuming you're also a freshman?"

Hurley laughs. "You betcha!"

The door to the classroom swings open, and the students pour in past the teacher. She looks elvish, with pretty long ears and beautiful hair, but it's her mischievous grin pegs her as the one and only Ms. Garcia.

Ms. Garcia closes the door behind herself, propping it open slightly. "Just in case some students find themselves in the wrong class," she explains. Her accent is dramatic and decidedly not Californian.

She walks to the front of the class, the clip clop of her heels echoing throughout the room. No one is sitting. All of the students line the walls, some appearing to desire to melt into the decorating.

When Ms. Garcia reaches the front of the room, she sits down in her chair and pulls out a book, propping her feet up on the desk.

There is absolute silence, save the rustle as she turns the pages.

After several minutes, Hurley steps forward from the wall, and coughs pointedly. Everyone freezes, and stares at her.

Across the room, it's imperceptible whether or not Ms. Garcia noticed Hurley, or merely ignored her.

Hurley speaks. "With all due respect, Ms. Garcia, can- sorry, _may_ we sit down?"

It's quiet for a moment. Everyone holds their breath.

Ms. Garcia shuts the book, places it on her desk with a satisfying smack, sliding her cat-eye glasses down her nose and peering through them at Hurley, her stoic face betrayed by the curious, amused sparkle in her brown eyes.

She leaps to her feet, hands on her hips, grinning ear to ear. "Excellent query! The whole point of history is to examine a situation, and use clues to piece together the story. And class, we can all agree this young lady did so _exquisitely_."

She looks Hurley in the eye. "You get first pick of seating." Hurley's eyes widen. She picks a seat in the front row near the left side of the room, where Ms. Garcia's desk stands.

"Now," she continues, "As students of history, you're expected to do your own research. Raise your hand if you know anything about my life." Ms. Garcia searched over the room expectantly.

Lucretia gulps. She raises her hand somewhat reluctantly. Ms. Garcia smiles kindly at her, and points. "Yes, young lady, tell us all about me!"

Lucretia fidgets a bit, her hand playing idly with the hem of her shirt as she begins to speak. "You were born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1969. You graduated high school and got a full-ride scholarship to UCI, a fairly new campus on the rise with a great history department. You graduated in 1987, a member of the honors society with a dazzling GPA and a promising future. Yale offered you a scholarship for graduate studies and a position as an undergrad teacher, and you accepted. Thirty years later, you're a high school teacher, with some of the highest ratings in the state."

Lucretia takes a breath as if preparing to say more, but Ms. Garcia interrupts her with a clap.

"You see, class? This young lady did her research!" She turns to Lucretia, beaming. "Go ahead and pick a spot!"

Hurley nods at Lucretia, tapping the seat next to her.

The rest of the class is easy. Ms. Garcia is certainly eccentric, and most definitely dramatic. There's something else about her, though, Lucretia thinks to herself. But though as expansive as her vocabulary is, and as analytical her mind is, Lucretia cannot quite piece it together or assign a name to it, which frustrates her deeply. She'll have to research some more, and just dig a little more on the internet.

She's interrupted from her thoughts with a tap on her shoulder. She turns and meets Hurley's eyes.

"Hey Lucretia? Class is over." Her words are not unkind as she stows away her notes into her backpack and pushes in her chair.

Lucretia nods. "Thanks Hurley, I kind of... 'spaced out'? Am I using that term right?"

Hurley laughs, and slings her backpack over her shoulder. "Probably. Hey, come sit with me and my friends at lunch. We'll be in front of the theater... you know where that is, right?"

Lucretia smiles. "Definitely. I'll see you there."

"Bye!"

As Lucretia leaves the classroom, she thinks to herself, _perhaps this year will be different_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also: this isn't a Hurley/Lucretia fic, I don't think? But both of them are definitely wlw. I want this story to develop organically though, so I'm not going to throw either of them into a relationship. Unless if the relationship was already developing before the storyline. 
> 
> There will DEFINITELY be wlw content in here, though.


End file.
